Configure External Broker(RabbitMQ) In Spring4+STOMP+SockJS Application

Question

I am working on a chat application developed using Spring4 Messaging and STOMP implemented with SockJS. The application works fine when I use the Simple Message Broker :

config.enableSimpleBroker("/queue/", "/topic/");

But, now we have a requirement to use an external broker(RabbitMQ) with the same application. For that, I changed the above code with the following:

// config.enableSimpleBroker("/queue/", "/topic/");
config.enableStompBrokerRelay("/queue", "/topic");

My client side is connecting using STOMP client as below:

stompClient.connect({},  function(frame) {
    // subscribe to topics or queues and other stuff
});

But, I got the following exception:

2014-05-09 11:13:13,567 ERROR        o.s.s.support.TaskUtils$LoggingErrorHandler - Unexpected error occurred in scheduled task.
org.springframework.messaging.MessageDeliveryException: Message broker is not active.
at org.springframework.messaging.simp.stomp.StompBrokerRelayMessageHandler.handleMessageInternal(StompBrokerRelayMessageHandler.java:378) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.simp.broker.AbstractBrokerMessageHandler.handleMessage(AbstractBrokerMessageHandler.java:171) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.support.ExecutorSubscribableChannel.sendInternal(ExecutorSubscribableChannel.java:64) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.support.AbstractMessageChannel.send(AbstractMessageChannel.java:116) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.support.AbstractMessageChannel.send(AbstractMessageChannel.java:98) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.simp.SimpMessagingTemplate.doSend(SimpMessagingTemplate.java:129) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.simp.SimpMessagingTemplate.doSend(SimpMessagingTemplate.java:48) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.core.AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.send(AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.java:93) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.core.AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.convertAndSend(AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.java:146) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.core.AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.convertAndSend(AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.java:112) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.messaging.core.AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.convertAndSend(AbstractMessageSendingTemplate.java:106) ~[spring-messaging-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at com.attomic.chat.service.ActiveUserPinger.pingUsers(ActiveUserPinger.java:24) ~[ActiveUserPinger.class:na]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[na:1.7.0_05]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57) ~[na:1.7.0_05]
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[na:1.7.0_05]
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601) ~[na:1.7.0_05]
at org.springframework.scheduling.support.ScheduledMethodRunnable.run(ScheduledMethodRunnable.java:65) ~[spring-context-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.scheduling.support.DelegatingErrorHandlingRunnable.run(DelegatingErrorHandlingRunnable.java:54) ~[spring-context-4.0.3.RELEASE.jar:4.0.3.RELEASE]
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRunAndReset(FutureTask.java:351) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.runAndReset(FutureTask.java:178) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.access$301(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:178) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:293) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603) [na:1.7.0_05]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722) [na:1.7.0_05]

I checked RabbitMQ and it is up and running. The STOMP plugin is also installed and working fine in RabbitMQ.I also tried the following:

1. config.enableStompBrokerRelay("/queue", "/topic").setSystemLogin("guest").setSystemPasscode("guest");
2. config.enableStompBrokerRelay("/queue", "/topic").setClientLogin("guest").setClientPasscode("guest");
3. config.enableStompBrokerRelay("/queue", "/topic").setRelayHost("localhost").setRelayPort("15672");

I have done quite a bit of search but still unable to resolve this. Can somebody throw some light on this?

Answer 1

After doing some research and some experiments, as expected, I found out that the problem is on the client side. Changing

stompClient.connect({},  function(frame) {
    // subscribe to topics or queues and other stuff
});

to

stompClient.connect('guest', 'guest',  function(frame) {
    // subscribe to topics or queues and other stuff
});

worked like a charm. Here, first argument guest is the username and second argument guest is the password of the RabbitMQ server. So the basic point here is that whenever you configure an external broker you need to pass the username and password of the server. In case of simple broker, no need of passing credentials. Cheers!!